RVW module for syndicating and aggregating reviews

Author

Alf Eaton <a@pmbrowser.info>

Abstract

This specification defines the Review (RVW) Module. RVW is intended to allow machine-readable reviews to be integrated into feeds, thus allowing reviews to be automatically compiled from distributed sources.

Usage

Many individuals and organisations publish reviews on their own websites, but it is currently difficult to take all these opinions into account when making a decision. Individual reviews may have their own rating scheme, may lack a definite description of the subject of the review, and may be of books, music, films, restaurants, beaches, politicians, or any other subject. As online product reviews become increasingly widespread, it is important to make these critical opinions easily accessible on demand.

The inclusion of RVW, and other, metadata in feeds where appropriate will enable the building of aggregators that can collate reviews in particular topic areas, aggregate rating scores, and summarise the opinions of a large number of contributors, with the aim of providing informed collective analysis.

in TypeList (based on Atom, can only review one thing at once, uses its own namespaces for many fields):

<entry>
<book:isbn>0375412808</book:isbn>
<title>Jeffrey Steingarten: It Must've Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything</title>
<id>tag:typepad.com,2003:listitem-201</id>
<content>This is a funny book.</content>
<rvw:rating>80</rvw:rating>
<rvw:buylink>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375412808/associatesid-20</rvw:buylink>
<book:title>It Must've Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything</book:title>
<book:author>Jeffrey Steingarten</book:author>
<book:thumbnail>http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0375412808.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg</book:thumbnail>
</entry>